Mysteries
Unsorted Mystery Ideas Some of these are probably suited to one-shot adventures or set-pieces; others might be suited to be Central Mysteries for Mage chronicle settings. Others might serve as either or, depending on how they're grouped together. # Animals are becoming people. On their own. # Luck flares, good and bad, in extreme spikes. # Time fractures; inside of them events may loop or repeat or freeze. # Nightmares plague people. Some of them are prophetic. Some of them are lies. There is no discernable difference between the two; but sometimes prophecies are fulfilled by people acting in line with -- or against -- the lies. # The Devil manifests before people, dealing them wishes for souls; and then becoming psychopaths. # Sleepers who dream enter a collective Astral dream while sleeping; living entirely separate lives in a secondary world. # Doors occasionally open to a secret realm of jade and blood, instead of where they're supposed to. # History literally repeats itself -- time holes break out. # The day and night cycles seem to alter Verges between paths. # The Writing On The Wall is real, and symbolic, and unprovoked. Yet, it occurs. # In the depths of the waters nearby, Ruins appear and disappear; often filled with treasures. # The ghosts of battles fought in ages or realms far, far away are raging still. # Awakened magic is dangerous and falling apart; the Abyss has a hold here. # Runes with ancient wisdom and secrets often appear in the shadows in this area. # Here, God answers prayers. Demons possess people. Angels deliver messages from on high. # An old asylum seemingly grows rooms and hallways never before mapped. A world of imprisonment and insanity lies beyond. # A magic blade appears before those chosen to strike someone down, urging them to murder. # The dead do not die. They remain animate; not undead, still wounded -- but not dying. # A single house looms on the horizon, here. Nobody has ever been inside it. # Strange creatures: Not spirit, not goetia, not abyssal, not ghosts, stalk this area and kill all those who displease them. # The dead reach out and whisper to those who walk through this Graveyard; but there are no ghosts. # All promises here are binding, Curses follow those who break their word. # There is never an opportunity to cast spells without sleeper witnesses here; they always seem to stumble in on things. # Madness overtakes particular people in this area, turning them violent and crazy. # A specific spot in this field has always attracted lightning; despite any and all laws of physics. # There is no truthful answer to the question "Who created this swordsmanship style?" # Sunlight *heals* people here. # People who die here leave behind ghosts that are nothing like they were in life -- at all. # Intoxication seems to imbue sleepers with some kind of low-level magical ability, here. # Anyone entering the Astral from this location can only arrive in a singular realm fo the Temenos; they may not even enter their own Oneiros. A band of violent entities controls the Astral territories. # Occasionally, people here fall under a compulsion with know discernable origin -- to steal. They always seem to forget where the objects go. # The fog here eats people. Literally. # Righteousness over-rides free will, here. Here, people's Vices do not restore willpower. Only their Virtues do; and actions taken in line with their Virtues refund any WP spent if the actions succeed. # Shooting stars land here regularly, leaving craters with strange magical side-effects. # People who sleep here do not dream: they die, and are ressurected when the awaken. # Nobody here knows their own parents. Everyone here has lost their children. There are no exceptions; all families are adopted. # People who are murdered here invariably leave ghosts behind. # In these parts, Items of significance often disappear from where they belong, and appear elsewhere, with no known cause. # Major astral events always seem to hold significant sway over the events that occur in the lives of mages and sleepers who live here. # Occasionally, books here open up to grimoires. Once closed, they open up normally. Nobody knows how or why. # The Forest here seems to have it's will; and it always gets it's way. People vanish and return, amnesiacs. Key figures die to animal attacks. Weather conspires to protect the trees from flames. # People occasionally not only suffer unprovoked amnesia, but when they do, they become someone else entirely -- with sympathetic links, true histories, memories and personalities all their own. # Ectoplasm secretes arbitrarily; appearing primarily in food as it is cooked. # The Shadows in an area come to life; taking on minds of their own. Worse, they seem to be working toward some hive-minded agenda. # Souls' tethers to their bodies are weak, here. Only the most vile kinds of Mages make their beds in this territory -- or those who are hunting them. # Twilight does not seem to exist, here. All entities Manifest automatically by entering the area. # This area has not known anything but snow and ice for a hundred years; but it exists in a perfectly temporate -- or worse, warm -- climated area. # Avernian Gates seem to open unprovoked; some at random, some as though exacting some kind of sinister plot that involves the disappearance of their victims, always properly timed to make things worse...